"It Is Right and Just": Liturgy and Catholic Health Care Ethic

This paper, which is a sounding for a possible subsequent book-length treatment, attempts to address all three of the following questions from the call for papers: "Some have called for clinicians and clergy to work together in order to care for patients holistically. Others have looked to religious traditions for content to help clinicians practice ethically. Still others have looked to religious communities and spiritual practices to help patients cope with and find meaning in their suffering." That is, this paper explores how liturgical theology and practices, especially but not exclusively for Catholics, might serve as a foundation for patients, clergy, and clinicians to address the ethics of Catholic health care. After all, as Kenneth Himes OFM and James Keenan SJ have observed, most Catholics do not read magisterial documents or the ERDs, but instead receive their "moral education" in the liturgy, which itself, as said during the Mass, is "right and just," that is, a moral activity. The paper draws on the work of Stanley Hauerwas, as well as the early 20th century liturgical-ethical work of Benedictine monk Virgil Michel, and it gives attention to virtue theory, narrative, as well as end of life issues.